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Simplicity Mower Deck Belt/Pulley Issue


mcd

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I went to engage the blades yesterday on my 7117 and they didn't start right up. I heard the belts struggling to spin and after a second I saw some smoke coming up from the mower deck. I took off the deck cover and everything appeared to be normal. I engaged the blades again and this time all the belts were spinning but the mower deck belt didn't look like it was spinning right. It was flopping around a lot when spinning. There is a little play in the belt so I'm not sure if that's normal or not.

 

Any ideas what could cause this? I don't see any place where the pulleys there are adjustable.

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Where the belt goes around the cone clutch, there are two idlers.  Looking at it from the side there should be a patch of red and green on the fixed bracket.  might need wiped off.

The movable swing arm on the left side should be in the green.  If not the right pulley is adjustable by loosening the nut and sliding the stud in the slot.

Also make sure the left pulley is in the correct hole. pretty sure it is the top, but I am not looking at the tractor right now.

 

 

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47 minutes ago, GregB said:

Where the belt goes around the cone clutch, there are two idlers.  Looking at it from the side there should be a patch of red and green on the fixed bracket.  might need wiped off.

The movable swing arm on the left side should be in the green.  If not the right pulley is adjustable by loosening the nut and sliding the stud in the slot.

Also make sure the left pulley is in the correct hole. pretty sure it is the top, but I am not looking at the tractor right now.

 

 

Thanks for the reply GregB. The PTO belt (I think is the correct name) is spinning just fine. I have the idler in the correct hole (bottom) and the swing arm in the green. The issue I'm having is the mower deck belt which doesn't seem to be spinning properly.

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6 minutes ago, GregB said:

Stuck idler on the deck, or spring on it is missing or stretched?

 

The spring is in place and seems to be fine. Maybe it is the deck idler pulley. I just recently removed it and greased it which had probably never been done before. Maybe I torqued it too much? Strange though because I have mowed once since I did that.

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Your nut may be to tight and with a little running it has tightened tighter now that you have cleaned and greased. Just my $.02

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If the idler assembly is moving freely, that should not be any issue.  To my knowledge, there is no such thing as too tight.  The idler has a sleeve that it pivots on is set up so that it is a bit longer than the assembly, so you can't make it too tight.  Make sure you have removed that sleeve and lubricated it.  It almost looks like a part of the assembly, and I have had to use a vise to press them out more than once.  Once out, I cleaned them up with a wire wheel, cleaned the bore of the assembly with a small drum sander (Dremel), and re-assembled with Neversieze.  Next, I would check to see that all arbors are turning freely, the idler is spinning freely.  The belt does bounce around on the back side (long run) a bit, this is normal.  As far as the original smoke, that doesn't sound right, and if you check all arbors and idler, I think you may find the problem.

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Played with it last night. All blades and pulleys move freely. I tightened the idler pulley bracket from where the lift chain mounts. When I engage the blades the belt is now slipping off within 2 seconds. The belt gets pretty skinny at one part so I'm thinking it is stretched out and causing it to be too loose. I'm going to replace that today. 

 

It looks like the deck idler pulley should have some sort of belt stop on it but I have never seen one. The other pulleys under there have a much smaller channel for the belt to fit in so they can't slip out. Am I missing something or is this normal to not have any sort of belt slip on there?

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2 hours ago, mcd said:

It looks like the deck idler pulley should have some sort of belt stop on it but I have never seen one. The other pulleys under there have a much smaller channel for the belt to fit in so they can't slip out. Am I missing something or is this normal to not have any sort of belt slip on there?

The deck idler pulley is a "back side" idler pulley that should have raised edges to help keep the belt on the pulley as can be seen in the following pic of an older 48" deep pocket deck:

IMG_4462b.jpg.03c25b0756c935e001dd6778d7eea69f.jpg

Another pic (later model 48" deck) where you can see the inner race (sleeve Brettw posted about above) of the idler bracket pivot sticking out from above the bracket and under the washer:

IMG_9224a.JPG.f127a31667c27cf96a87cff59b66aea9.JPG

And you can also see Simplicity switched from a metal idler pulley to a plastic one.

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Sounds like a idler pulley issue on the deck like the other guys have mentioned. Just make sure you can move that pulley by hand with the spring on it, if not that's your problem. Cant go wrong with a new belt if it doesn't look right

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Thanks everybody for your suggestions. I figured out what caused the issue. The original screws that hold on the top plate on the mower deck were not tightening any longer so I drilled some new holes and screwed in some 3/4" screws to hold it in place. I guess by doing this I forced the plate to sit down a little lower than normal so the idler pulley rubbed the plate when I engaged the blades. This caused the mower pulleys to not spin properly, put marks on the bottom side of the plate, strip the top of the idler pulley bolt and stretch the belt. I replaced the idler pulley belt, replaced the belt and have temporarily secured the plate on top with a couple bolts/nuts using the original holes. It seems to have enough clearance to spin freely now and I can finally mow again.

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